Family members of a 34-year-old man, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday, were put into isolation by the Seti Provincial Hospital on Saturday morning.

The man who had flown to Kathmandu from the United Arab Emirates is the first Covid-19 positive case outside the Kathmandu Valley.

The Ministry of Health and Population said on Friday that specimens from the man sent by the Seti Provincial Hospital tested positive for Covid-19. Police on Friday night had collected information about his family.

“All eight members of his family were taken to Seti Provincial Hospital’s isolation facility at around 10:30 am on Saturday,” said Dr Bishnu Joshi of Seti Provincial Hospital. “The specimens—nasal and throat swabs—have been collected from all family members and will be sent to the National Public Health Laboratory.”

A day after the Health Ministry identified the man as the fourth Covid-19 positive case and the third live case, more details have surfaced.

The man told the Post over the phone that he had travelled from Dubai to New Delhi on an Emirates flight on March 20. He then took a Vistara flight to Kathmandu the same day.

He had boarded a Buddha Air flight to Nepalgunj on March 21, travelling on a Toyota Hiace to Attariya and reaching home the same day.

"A friend from Biratnagar was with me till Kathmandu," he said. "I went through a health screening at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, but I was allowed to go.”

According to him, he was with his family from Saturday evening to Tuesday.

After developing a fever on the second night after reaching home, he had visited the Seti Provincial Hospital in Dhangadhi on March 24. He has been in quarantine ever since.

The hospital was unable to send his specimens—nasal and throat swabs—to the National Public Health Laboratory, the only lab which conducts tests for the coronavirus, immediately as the government enforced a lockdown starting the same morning (March 24), suspending all air and bus services.

The National Public Health Laboratory, under the Department of Health Services, eventually received the specimens, tested them and confirmed the positive result on Friday.

“Had there been proper screening at the Kathmandu airport, I would have been put under quarantine in Kathmandu itself,” he said. “My family would not have faced this situation.”